Today we have a lot to celebrate

Spotify turns three years old today. Yes, we really did start the company on April Fool’s Day. It’s been an amazing ride since we first set out to change the way people listen to music and while we’ve come a long way we still have a lot to do. In addition to Spotify’s third anniversary today is our co-founder Martin’s 40th birthday.

Since we began a lot has changed in the music industry; in particular over the past ten years there has been a radical shift in the way we consume music. The initial move from physical purchase of music to digital downloads changed forever the way we listen to music. Unfortunately, the easiest and most popular way to download music doesn’t compensate the rights holders. To change this, the music industry has started to move from an ownership model to a model where you have access to an unlimited catalogue of all the world’s music.

The move from ownership to access is what initially inspired Spotify to provide users with the ability to listen to whatever music they want, whenever they want to. People don’t want to act illegally, but they want to have everything at their fingertips instantly. By providing unlimited access we can create a product that is better than piracy.

Early on we realised that in order to achieve our dream we needed to be more than purely a program that played music on your computer. For that to happen we need to open up Spotify to a wider community, while at the same time respecting rights holders and generating enough money to provide users with the best possible service. We want Spotify to be the platform for people to consume, manage and discover music.

To reach our goal it’s important for Spotify to be wherever our users are. Music should be accessible on your favorite platform whether that’s a social network, an IM service, a mobile device or a media centre in your living room.

It’s also vital for us to be able to continue to provide a free service that is supported by advertising and has the same content as our paid service. To attract customers to Spotify Premium we want to provide access to more social features, bring users closer to the artists through pre-releases and live concerts and provide convenient access on a variety of different devices.

We plan to have more detailed information for you in the next few weeks, stay tuned.